Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1887-07-23
miscellaneous.
Management of the Dairy.

Hon. Edward Burnett. President OF the
Bay State Agricultural Society, is one of
the most pains-takIrg and careful private
dairymen in Massach useits, and his herd
of cows and fancy butter have a high repu-
tation in Boston market. The following
details, therefore, of his own individual
practice. as furnished by the New Eng
land Farmer, will be read with interest -
My own cows do not get over four
quarts per day of grain. | do not grain
higher tor the sake of the general health
of the cows aud TO insure vigorous proge
ny. Yet with the food just mentioned six
teen pounds of milk from my dairy of
thirty cows make one pound of butter.
while at my creamery, where ! receive
the milk of between five hundred and six
hundred cows every day, it takes twenty
one and one half pounds of milk to make
one pound OF butter. A proper system
of feeding with clover, corn slower, cob
meal. roots and hay, with good grade
cattle and proper care and housing, will
certainly produce milk that will give a
pound of butter to every sixteen pounds
of milk. Farmers are throwing away n
large share of their profits by niudiclous
,eeding. As good sign. the cultivation
and use of corn-fodder is increasing in
New England. Let the cultivation of
clover increase in the same ratio and we
shall see more satisfactory results in
dairying. feed good mess
of roots, each grown animal re-
ceiving one-third OF a bushel of roots
and the young animal one peek
Select good COWS. Perfect dairy cows
a,e rare more rare than most farmers
think. The marks of perfect COW are
large body, thin neck. clean head. wide
hips. and ur der them a large udder.
two large, crooked milk veins meander-
ing along the belly to the udder.
e'seh rs large as your two thumbs. The
shape Of the cow should be like the letter
V with the point at the head. A good
Judge can pick ont the good dairy cows
from herd in the dark. There are three
very important requisites in the keeping
of dairy stock which are indispensable to
success. On them hangs the solution of
the whole problem. First. feed; second.
care third. skill. As to feed. a poor COW
with good iced will give better results
than \ good one with poor feed place
clover first in the list. Clover is running
out in New England. Farmers are aban,
dsniug the cultivation Of the most valuable
product of the soil for dairy uses. There
is consequent depreciation of the quality
OF butter. The Darlings of Philadelphia.
who make the best butter in the country
attribute a large part of their success to
the constant and iudicious use of clover.
All heritage dried fer use is better cured
in the shade. as every housewife knows
who dries herbs for family use. and the
nearest approach to that with clover is to
cure it IN small cocks. turning it once a
dsy for two or three DAYS. Clover should
be cut with machine, as the scythe and
subsequent forking and raking tend to
waste of the leaves. Clover-h hay and cob
meal supplemented by corn fodder proper
ly cured. make the best butter in the
world. and these are all within the reach
of the average farmer. Good butter can
not be made from ensilage.